Been busy!

I cannot believe it's been over a month since I have been on to write! Not that my life is super duper exciting but like I've said before it's my life! So the synopsis over the last month which was super busy by the way. Paul and Belle went to visit Paul's grandfather the beginning of the month for his birthday since he doesn't travel much anymore. On the trip Belle never wet her pull up or panties for 5 hours straight in the car!! Since then she has been in panties and is pretty much potty trained, although she does have accidents a few times a week and we are still working on the pooping in the potty. But she is doing great! Paul also found out on this trip that his cousin and her husband are adopting from Haiti!! Now the interesting part is the last time we were up visiting with them, neither she nor I were pregnant. We both however got pregnant within a month of each other! Our due dates were two weeks apart. And so our kids are about three weeks apart and now we are both adopting inter-racially and internationally! It makes me so excited! Then the next weekend we got our family pictures done. Thanks to Kathy Passmore Photography! Then the weekend of the 20th the three of us were in Paul's other cousin's wedding in Richmond, Va. They got married at the Edgar Allen Poe Museum which was pretty cool and was a great setting for family pictures! I got awesome pictures of Belle too! We had a good time and spent time with family we don't see often at all. Then the next weekend I worked a craft fair for our adoption and made $16. And I sold nothing that I made! We also did a bake sale that weekend and made $68 total for our adoption between both. Then Hurricane Sandy arrived the beginning of the week. I worked during the first portion of the  hurricane and thankfully we never lost power or had any damage! Then it was Halloween and we took Belle trick or treating for the first time. She liked it, but we didn't go to a lot because I didn't want her to have a bunch of candy. But she liked it! We also had to buy a new tv last month because ours stopped working properly.

This month has been busy too. I worked last weekend and then worked an extra shift for someone. Which this week put me three days in a row. I was totally done by yesterday evening! Work has been a tad stressful lately with some critical patients but it is gaining me experience, so I appreciate that as long as the outcome is okay. And praise God my chocolate fast was over on the first!!

Now for adoption updates. We had all of our home study visits last month and are just waiting to view our report. Once we receive the report we will have everything we need for our grant, and send the rest of that stuff in. We are currently working on the online training (which I should be doing now instead of this but oh well). And we are still trying to sell a few things. We  are currently also doing a Mary Kay fundraiser thanks to our friend Jacy Wolfe who is donating her profits to our adoption! We are also going to be doing Chick-Fil-A calendar sales once I talk to the marketing director. And we are doing a Coffee, Dessert, and Silent Auction fundraiser December 9th. I have been working on a quilt for the auction and have a couple photography pieces for it so far. Another photographer will be donating a photo session and package, and today I called around and we will be getting baseball game tickets, play tickets, and wine tasting tickets! I was thrilled and so excited that people are just donating and so willing to help!! The tickets for the fundraiser are $5 a piece and kids are free. We are going to feature the coffee from our online fundraiser that is from Ethiopia. I am so excited! I just need to buy the coffee, the cookie cutter, and the supplies for the cupcakes. We are giving out a favor which will be a cookie in the shape of Ethiopia with the flag colors. And I need to arrange for someone to do Christmas music for us. Any takers?! So some snags we have run into is needing to finish the online training quickly, not getting our home study report quickly, and not getting our detailed medical letters from our doctor. The letters is the biggest snag because he told me he didn't have any time at all to write them and that he didn't think he would be able to. I cried after talking to him about it. But then when I emailed our family coordinator she said to write it and have him approve it. So I did that and wrote our application letters last night. I was feeling very anxious about everything we have to get done, but I am feeling much calmer because I am checking things off! And I have just been praying that God will provide the money we need for our adoption and I am going to see what I can do to get the word out about our silent auction so hopefully we will make a decent amount for our dossier submission. Anyway, that's about it on adoption stuff.

Belle is doing well, although she is hitting at daycare. But she is getting better about listening and staying in time out. She was having trouble and needing us to fall asleep and not going to sleep until 9 or after. But after a week and half of "training" she is doing better again.

I think that is all for now. I will try to keep up a little better!